Where was God?

Throughout our history we have had to deal with tragedies and natural disasters that are so devastating as to boggle the mind. People die every minute of every day; and when it comes to death there is no discrimination. Children are born stillborn at times so some of them never even make it out of the womb.

I have stated in older posts that all of these occurrences are best explained naturally and as an inevitable byproduct of life. To ask why certain things related to death happen is in my opinion an unanswerable question and a futile endeavor. To ask why a senior citizen who had suffered from alzheimers disease dies at an undetermined time is a ridiculous question. To rationalize his/her death by inserting Gods need to have that person with him in some imaginary realm of existence just complicates matters beyond all reasoning. Sure, it may serve some comfort to those the deceased have left behind but the reality of the matter is much more obvious and mundane.

Life in and of itself convinces me beyond the shadow of a doubt that God does not and cannot exist! Reality is a testament against the existence of God and what many theists are led to believe about him based on the many sacred texts that claim divine inspiration. Instead of asking why when tragedy strikes why not ask where was God? If he loves us so much and wants nothing but the best for us then why does a pastor get shot down right on the pulpit during church service? Why were 914 people in 1978 so easily duped and deluded to the point of death by suicide as in the Jim Jones incident in Guyana?

From a naturalistic perspective it is easier to come to terms with the idea that life comes with the consequence of death. Every living organism that has ever walked, crawled, flew, burrowed, or existed in some other form on this earth has died. People age and decay or are suddenly taken from us when tragedy  strikes, but this is just the reality of the world we inhabit. Unforeseen events happen all of the time.

When you try and make sense of the world from a theistic perspective it leads to all sorts of irrational conclusions. Any sort of conclusion or excuse you can make in Gods' defense is at best ad hoc since based on your own admission no one can comprehend or fully understand the mind of God. To relegate natural disasters or man made atrocity to the realm of theology is a grave error that cannot be reconciled with reality.

God was not around during any of mans worse moments not because he doesn't care or because he may be punishing or trying mans faith, he was nowhere to be found because he does not exist. Attributing all of these things to mans sinful nature is yet another step into the realm of irrationality since a sin is nothing more than something that offends God, which I have determined is impossible since he does not exist. Richard Carrier in his book entitled Why I am not a Christian cites as one of his reasons in the title of chapter 3 that "God is inert." In other words he does nothing to alleviate human suffering.

The problem of evil has been one of the apologists greatest thorns in their sides since the debate about Gods existence began. If there exists a God such as described in the bible then why does he allow so much suffering in the world? Why does he sit by idly watching the many tragic and disastrous events unfold without doing anything to thwart them? Mans so called sinful nature does not account for tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, avalanches, etc. These are all natural occurrences that happen regardless of man. When these events are seen as natural then the question of why makes no sense at all.

God is to the theist what that security blanket was to Linus in the Charlie Brown series. Although the blanket had no special powers or abilities it gave good ole Linus a false sense of security and helped ease his worries. I know it is hard but theists need to see the world as it really is and stop making up or imagining things that aren't. We are here now and this is the only chance we will have at life so enjoy it to the fullest and make the most of it. Forget about pie in the sky pipe dreams of eternity and realize and acknowledge that those things are nothing more than bronze aged ancient myths not unique to Christianity.